And yet Argon still comes by to spout his wisdom. How's that iPhone working out? Or is it an Android? Or some other flavor of the month. Wow.

Come on even you have to admit RIM is in a bit or a rut and it focusing its resources in the wrong direction. The smartphone is what they did best, focus on that and let the others fight Apple on the tablets.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. surprised Wall Street on Thursday as it reported a 59 percent increase in third-quarter income, boosted by new subscribers and record sales of its smart phones.

More than 80 percent of the Canadian companyxxx8217;s new subscribers were non-corporate customers, a sign of the BlackBerryxxx8217;s popularity among consumers amid intense competition from devices such as Apple Inc.xxx8217;s iPhone, Palm Inc.xxx8217;s Pre and Motorola Inc.xxx8217;s Droid.

Shares surged more than 12 percent in after-hours trading.

After initially focusing on corporate customers, RIM has expanded its reach into the consumer market in recent years with such touch-screen models as the BlackBerry Storm. Two years ago, half of RIMxxx8217;s new subscribers were business customers. In the third quarter, they made up less than a fifth.

xxx8220;The consumer side is growing real fast,xxx8221; co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said on a conference call with analysts. xxx8220;Itxxx8217;s not like this isnxxx8217;t a competitive space with big companies trying to do well and yet wexxx8217;re No. 1.xxx8221;

RIM sold more than 10 million BlackBerry phones during the third quarter, beating the previous record of 8.3 million, set during the second quarter. By contrast, Apple shipped 7.4 million iPhones in the most recent quarter.

You see that?
Higher consumer buying of the devices?
Still #1?
More devices sold than ever?
More than apple?
Wall Street was pleased?

You see that? Higher consumer buying of the devices?
Still #1?
More devices sold than over?
More than apple?
Wall Street was pleased?

A lot of carriers are basically giving them away. Many people vote with their wallets. I would be curious to see what the latest "churn" rate for BB is. Once people see what they can't do on their BBs and what their friends can do on their other devices.

Re: RIM chasing Apple instead of worrying about their bread and butter

Actually I found the Blog fairly balanced. They gave kudos to the keyboard, messaging capabilities, build quality and other metrics.

As to the earnings yesterday, you need to drill into the numbers. RIM is selling a lot more devices into emerging markets. US sales were down 16%. Those emerging markets mean lots more devices sold at much lower ASPs.

How many devices were sold that were BES connected devices (with the associated BES license revenue stream from those attaches). I would bet a majority of those devices are BIS attach only.

Torch sales were said to be good but how many were device refreshes vs net new BB customers?

I'm hardly implying the death of RIM by any means but unless they can port QNX to their smartphones fairly quickly, they will become the Smartphone version of Nokia, lots of sales of cheap devices into 2nd and 3rd world countries (at tiny margins). but lackluster sales in the high end space where the large margins exist.

Re: RIM chasing Apple instead of worrying about their bread and butter

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArgonNJ

A lot of carriers are basically giving them away. Many people vote with their wallets. I would be curious to see what the latest "churn" rate for BB is. Once people see what they can't do on their BBs and what their friends can do on their other devices.

When the actual numbers hit you square in the face, you just can't stand it and come up with yet another "excuse". Carriers have been giving away devices for two year contracts for years.
People screamed last year that RIM would never catch the consumer market. Bam. They did.
And I know RIM is flailing in many areas, but doom is not yet upon them, by a long shot.